Day Off
by Misgiving Writer
Summary: It's not that big of a deal, really. Despite what Rigby insists. It's just a concert - Benson is the only other person with the day off and Mordecai has two very expensive tickets already bought. And he isn't going to waste them.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Just a short, four-part story that I wrote up. It was originally for _Lancesinmyheart_, because she wanted a fic like this and I was bored. Also, head-canons had to be fulfilled.

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><p>"C'mon, Benson! It's just a little favor!" Mordicai whined. "It's not like I'm asking for a month off or anything stupid like that!"<p>

"No, Mordicai." Benson didn't look up from the computer he was sitting at when he spoke, eyes firmly locked onto the screen. He had to get the report on the 'incident' out at the tennis field written up before the day was over. He didn't have time to mess with the blue jay!

"But Beeenson!" The bird whined, making sure to draw out the other boy's name.

"I'm busy." Benson snapped. "Go away!"

"Beenso-"

"Mordicai!" Benson spun his swivel chair around so that he could face the jay. "I said 'no'! Skips already asked to have that day off and we won't be able to get everything done if I give you both off on the same day. Why are you so determined to get off tomorrow anyway?"

Mordicai slouched foreward, shoulders hunching up, and let out a sigh. "Because, there's this concert going on that night and me and Rigby wanted to go and see it. We need the day off!"

With Rigby? Benson scowled and crossed his arms over his chest. Right. Like that was going to happen. "I don't think so, Mordicai. I can't give everyone the same day off! Now get back to WORK!" Benson shouted, jabbing his finger towards the door.

Snorting, Mordicai mirrored Benson's scowl and let out a muttered 'jerk'. Great. Now he had to go and tell Rigby that they couldn't go see the Flying Fists concert. It was gonna be awesome too...He shot another glare over his shoulder, though Benson had already turned his back on him and gone back to typing, as he stomped out of the room.

Benson managed to type up a few more sentences to the report before letting out a sigh. A few clicks and the schedule for the week was on the screen. Mordicai had been scheduled to cut grass the next day but...He guessed that could wait an extra day. It wasn't like it was on the verge of becoming a jungle or anything. Mordicai wasn't really needed.

And it was about time that he had got a day off too. Skips could just work tomorrow, take Benson's shift while Muscle Man got started on the lawn, and he'd make sure everything got done.

Rigby, of course, would still have to work. The gutters hadn't been cleaned all month. The racoon could deal with missing his silly little concert; he was pretty sure that Mordicai was the fan anyway.

Nodding to himself, Benson saved the changes in the document and pulled his original project back up. He'd get it finished and sent in to the owner and then go find Skips and tell him that both Mordicai and himself would be taking the day off tomorrow. And that Skips could have an extra day off the next week.

And, God, he was really getting soft wasn't he?


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: These were actually a lot of fun to write. I hit a few _blegh_ spots, where I just couldn't think of anything, but I'm fairly happy with the end results. Hope you all are too!

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><p>"Dude, hurry up! High Five Ghost says the schedule's up!" Rigby called over his shoulder, glancing back at Mordicai as he did. Unlike Rigby, who was switching from foot to foot while he waited by the front door, the jay wasn't in any hurry to find out what chores he'd been given.<p>

"I already told you, Rigby, Benson's not giving us the day off. He got totally ticked off at me yesterday when I asked about it." Mordicai stated, annoyed. He'd really wanted to go to that concert, too. The Flying Fists hadn't toured in years and they were only gonna be in town that one day.

Rigby narrowed his eyes at the taller animal. "I know. I told you we should've just ditched tomorrow! Now you've let him know we wanna leave and he'll be watching us all day! There's no way we can leave!"

"Maybe if you had come with me, then the two of us could've talked him into giving us the day off together!" Mordicai pointed out.

"Yeah right. He would have said 'no' just because I was there!" Rigby threw his arms up as he spoke and wove them about. "Benson hates me!"

"He doesn't hate you. He just...Doesn't like you." Mordicai explained, walking up the steps and squeezing past Rigby into the house. "To be fair, you do make a mess out of things a lot."

"Hey!" Rigby shouted, turning and scurrying into the house after his friend. Just because he'd told Mordicai to hurry up didn't mean that the jay could look at the schedule first! That was what Rigby wanted to do!

The racoon pushed Mordicai's legs as he ran past, tripping him, and took off towards the kitchen where the schedule would be hanging up. He could hear Mordicai shout something at him but the door swinging shut blocked it off. Probably just mad that he wouldn't get to read the schedule first. Yeah Mordicai was probably major jealous.

Laughing, Rigby ran over to the fridge and tugged on the paper there. The apple magnet keeping it there popped off and hit the floor, skidding across the tile and under the stove. Woops. He'd have to get that before Benson came down, he'd have a fit if it wasn't put back up.

But first, time to make sure that they had the day off!

Running one finger across the names on the list, Rigby let out a triumphant noise. "Aha! We do have the day off! Sweet!"

"We what?" Mordicai asked, rubbing his leg as he pushed the kitchen door open. "And what was with you shoving me like that? It was way uncool."

Completely ignoring the second question, Rigby waved the schedule at the jay. "We've got the day off! You know what that means, right? We're going to the concert!"

"What? Seriously?" Mordicai raised an eyebrow. With Rigby waving the paper around he couldn't actually read what it said but the racoon was, if nothing else, capable of reading. Most of the time; he had misread something once and summouned a giant gorilla that almost destroyed the park.

"Yeah, seriously!" Rigby held the paper further away from himself and pointed to the line that clearly read 'TUESDAY - MORDICAI - OFF'. And, obviously, if Mordicai had gotten off to see the concert, then he had too. That was just common sense. "I guess you were right about asking for us to have the day off, after all."

"Who's got the day off?"

Both animals jumped, turning around to find that Benson was at one of the counters getting himself a cup of coffee. In all of Rigby's shouting, they hadn't been able to hear him come in. Benson was giving them an odd look over his mug, like they had just done something really stupid. Which they hadn't. Rigby made sure not to do anything stupid until after breakfast.

"The two of us." The racoon motioned to himself and Mordicai with the hand not holding the schedule. "What, have you gotten so old that you can't even remember what you did last night?"

"I'm not old!" The gumball machine snapped, setting his black mug down on the counter. "And you must be even more stupid than I thought if you can't even read the schedule. No wonder you never get anything done!"

"Hey! I can read just fine! And it does say we have off!" Rigby stomped across the kitchen floor so he was standing in front of his boss and pointed at Mordicai's section on the paper. "Right. Here. See?"

Benson kept a blank face as he snatched the paper away from Rigby. "Oh, I see alright. I see where it says that Mordicai has off. I also see where it says, right here," he tapped on a different part of the paper. "that you have gutter duty today."

"I told you so-what? What do you mean I have gutter duty?" Rigby snatched the paper back and looked for his name. It couldn't say that he worked today! He and Mordicai always had the same days off! But...It did. In big, block letters.

TUESDAY - RIGBY - CLEAN GUTTERS -

Rigby sputtered for a few moments, while Mordicai peered over his shoulder at the schedule, before turning an enraged scowl on Benson. "Come on! How is that fair? Why should he get a day off when I don't?"

"Because he actually came and asked me last night. You were too lazy to even do that! So get your work done today or you're FIRED! Understand, Rigby? Fired!" Benson grabbed his cup of coffee back off the counter and stormed out of the kitchen, not looking at the jay bird gawking after him once.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Ahh, chapter three. Here we have some head-canons appearing. Probably the most fun out of all the chapters to write, simply because it's unconventional. Hope you all enjoy!

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><p>"Will you stop that, Rigby?" Mordicai snapped. He dropped his spoon into the bowl he was eating from, milk splashing out of the sides because, as usual, he'd poured too much into it, and glared across the table at his friend.<p>

Rigby had been pouting all morning about not getting the day off and it was seriously starting to get on Mordicai's nerves. Even though it wasn't his fault that the racoon hadn't gotten off, Rigby kept switching from glaring death-daggers at him to letting out giant, over exaggerated sighs.

Right now, he was sighing. Loudly. And it was keeping Mordicai from thinking about what he had to do!

"Why should I?" Rigby muttered. His arms were crossed over his chest and he had slouched down in his chair. Occasionally he'd lean foreward and mess with his cereal but it had gotten all soggy and nasty so he couldn't actually eat it anymore. Which figured. Not only did he not get the day off, he didn't even get to eat breakfast!

"Because, man, I need your help." Mordicai fished around in his milk until he'd managed to scoop the last couple of flakes of Krunchy Krunch cereal onto the spoon and popped it into his mouth. "I don't know what to do with my extra ticket."

It was super cool, and a little weird, that he'd been given the day off but since Rigby still had to work it meant that he was left with an extra ticket to the concert. And there was no way that he was going to let it go to waste. Those things cost a crap ton of money, which he was not made out of.

Still in the 'pout' mood, Rigby let himself flop foreward so his upper body was laying on the table. He used one hand to hold his head up, the other smooshing the soggy flakes floating in his bowl with his spoon. "I dunno...If you've gotta take someone else, why not Margaret?"

"Margaret?" Mordicai repeated, almost stunned sounding. Even at the mere thought of the red bird's name, he could feel his stomach start to flip. It was weird, but being around Margaret made him almost sick. The thought of being with her all night, at a concert, was just...It was just 'no'. "I can't ask Margaret!"

"Why not? She's cool and she loves to party and you so totally like her. I don't get what your deal is man. Actually," Rigby snapped, evidently finished with pouting and going back to being mad at him. "I don't get why you even have to take anyone with you! Those tickets were supposed to be for both of us! If you're gonna go without me, you might as well just take Benson with you!"

Mordicai blinked. "Benson?" He knew that Rigby hadn't been serious but the older man did have off that day too. There wasn't anyone else that he could ask either; most of the people he knew were either just major 'no's or had to work that day.

"I can't believe you, man! Even thinking about taking him, that's just...Just...Gah!" Rigby knocked the bowl of cereal he'd been playing with off and onto the floor at the same he let out the disgusted sounding groan. He sent Mordicai a nasty look before hopping down from his chair and stalking out of the kitchen.

Mordicai sighed. Great. Now Rigby was pissed at him. He'd told the smaller animal to come with him and ask Benson for the day off but, no. That was too 'lame' for him. Well too bad then because he wasn't going to waste that ticket!

Later, Benson's house

"Great. I can't even enjoy my day off without having you bother me. What do you want?" Benson asked, frowning. He was standing in the doorway of his apartment, one hand still on the handle in case he needed to slam the door on the bird, the other hand holding his still lit cigarette.

"Uhhh..." Mordicai rubbed the back of his head with one hand. He hadn't actually thought what he was going to say through. Just asking his boss whether he wanted to go to the concert seemed sort of weird. "I just wanted to ask..."

"Spit it out, Mordicai!" Benson snapped. God. It was his one day off in he couldn't remember how long, he was not about to spend it standing at the door playing guessing games. Tapping the ashes off the top of his cigarette with on finger, Benson stuck it back in the corner of his mouth. "I'm not going to stand here all day."

"Are you smoking?" Mordicai questioned, eyes suddenly zooming in on the burning cancer-stick. Now that he wasn't focused on not sounding like an idiot when he offered the ticket, he could definatly smell the bitter odor of smoke drifting out of the gumball machine's apartment.

"I have to smoke if I want to be able to put up with all that stupid ass shit I have to deal with at my stupid ass job. Think of all the idiots I have to deal with!" Benson made sure to narrow his eyes at Mordicai to let him know that, yes, he was included in the category of things that had driven him to chain-smoking on the hours that he was not at work.

That was actually what his day off would probably consist of. Sitting in his living room with all the lights turned off, drinking what ever shitty beer he had on hand, watching re-runs of Chopped, and smoking. Lots and lots of smoking.

As the boss of the entire park, it had been made clear to Benson that he was to set an example for the other employees. Which meant no smoking anywhere near the grounds. Which meant that he had to wait until the day was over and he'd cleaned up whatever mess Rigby and Mordicai had created to even start smoking.

It took a few moments before Mordicai thought to say something else, during which he just sort of stared at Benson. "Oh." Maybe he shouldn't ask him. Benson didn't usually cuss like that unless he was really, really, beyond furious at someone. "Is this a bad time? 'Cause I guess I can come back later if you're doing something."

"I'm not doing anything that I won't be doing later." Benson drawled. "Now did you need something or not?"

"Uh, yeah. Well, I didn't need anything but I wanted to ask you something." Mordicai waved one of his wings in the air as he spoke, in an awkward sort of motion. "See, I was going to the concert with Rigby but since he's got to work I've got an extra ticket. And, uh, you have off tonight so I was wondering if you wanted to come with me?"

Benson blinked before raising an eyebrow. Mordicai was inviting him to come? Funny. Benson had always gotten the impression that the jay wanted to spend as little time with him as possible. But he didn't have much else to do that day and it had been a while since he went to a concert...

Biting down on the edge of the cigarette so it didn't fall out of his mouth, Benson let out a sigh. "I guess. It's not like I have much else to do tonight. But I'm not driving you there, so if that's the reason you're asking you're out of luck."


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: The final conclusion of this little fandom foray. Hopefully you all enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. Again, this story is dedicated to LancesInMyHeart. It was her genius mind that gave me this pairing, and the muse to write this story out. Enjoy and let me know what you all think!

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><p>"Dude, you reek! How much beer did you drink today?" Mordicai waved one of his wings in front of his face, giving the gumball machine in front of him an incredulous look. He might , <span>might<span>, have been over reacting a little bit but there was no disguising the fact that Benson smelled like beer.

Said gumball machine scowled. "I still managed to drive here, so not enough. Cheap shit."

Mordicai kept staring at him. Had his boss, Benson the Stickler, really just said that? Benson, the guy that screamed if they drove one of the golfcarts after drinking a pop? That was...actually pretty cool.

"Are we going to stand out here all night, or do you plan on going inside for the concert?" Benson asked, crossing his arms over his chest. There was an almost burnt out cigarette dangling from between two of his fingers, a thin stream of smoke trailing up and around his globe.

"Oh, yeah. We got a pretty good spot up at the front." Mordicai started towards the door of the stadium before pausing and looking back over his shoulder. "I guess I should let you know that it can get pretty rough at these concerts."

The gumball machine rolled his eyes, dropping the smouldering cancer-stick onto the ground and snubbing it out with his heel. Benson had, actually, been a huge concert goer when he was younger. Not just to the shitty ones that came to their town, either. He could remember a time when he'd follow whatever band he was interested in for the entire tour. Then he'd gotten his job at the park and had to stop going to the concerts.

"I know what a concert's like, dipshit. Don't act like you're the only one who's ever been to them!" He snapped. Benson walked past the jay and into the building that housed the concert.

The change in atmosphere was immidiate.

Flying Fists hadn't started playing yet, but there was some small-town opening band on stage. What little bit of lights were turned on in the stadium had been put on low, several bulbs replaced with black lights and flourescent colors, and it took a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the change in lights.

Turning around so that he could face his companion, Benson made a small wave with his hand. "Where to?"

He could barely hear Mordicai's words over the bass and the other people that were crowded into the building; but when the jay started off towards the left of the stage, Benson squeezed through the crowds after him.

x-Later-x

Benson, Mordicai decided, had no problems dealing with the crowds that came with the Flying Fists concert.

When they pushed him, Benson pushed back.

When they belted out the lyrics, Benson belted out words close enough to the actual song to actually pass as lyrics.

When everyone started dancing, so did Benson. And, unlike Rigby, Benson was more then okay at it. Obviously, a packed concert wasn't the best place to grade someone on their dancing skills but there was no denying the fact that his boss was a better dancer then he was.

It really sucked.

x-Even Later-x

"Sooo..." Mordicai drawled. "That was pretty cool."

Benson grunted and shrugged but didn't look away from the road. It had been a long night, he was tired and maybe even a tad more drunk than he'd originally thought he was, and crashing was not on his list of things he wanted to do.

Surprisingly enough, the concert hadn't actually been bad. The main band was pretty lame but that was to be expected. Only bands that couldn't make it anywhere else ever came around to their town for a show. Mordicai hadn't been as annoying as Benson had thought he would be and the show, minus the Flying Fists' performance, had been pretty good too.

As if he'd been given an actual answer, Mordicai nodded. "Yeah, pretty cool."

Silence fell over the two again. Mordicai wasn't really sure where else to take the conversation. Or rather, how to start up a conversation. Since they'd gotten into the golf cart, Benson hadn't said much of anything. After a few more moments of thought, which ended up with him thinking back to the end of the concert when both he and the gumball machine beside him had dived into the mosh-pit instead of conversation, the jay decided that it just wasn't worth thinking about and if he thought of something intellegent to say later, he would.

With a yawn, Mordicai stretched out his wings. He let one of them rest on the top of the passenger side door, the other one spreading out on the top of the seats; just barely touching Benson's back and shoulders.

His boss' frown deepened. "Don't touch me."

"Sorry." Mordicai moved his wing just slightly further up the top of the seat. The jay turned away from the window, looking over at Benson instead. "You know, we should do something like that again sometime."

Benson didn't say anything right away, waiting until he'd swerved into the front yard of the boarding house. The thought of the two ever going out to anything together again seemed more than unlikely. Still, he gave a shrug. "Yeah, sure. Now why don't you get out of my car so I can go home?"

Unrealistic and not happening again but it had still been a nice change from his usual day off routine.


End file.
